Lucky Santangelo an ‘Almost’ rare heroine

Paula Xiberras

I was delighted when I heard Jackie Collins was in Australia and her publishers wanted her to talk with the Tasmanian Times.

It’s refreshing too, that for all Jackie’s moving in the world of the rich and famous there are no airs and graces, but instead a down to earth, genuinely interested in learning about the places she tours, strong and independent woman, that developed from the girl who once threw her school uniform into the Thames because school was not meeting her expectations.

Jackie loves Australia and Australians, she talks about the women being ‘smart and beautiful’ and the men ‘exciting, macho with a masculine vibe’. Jackie says the present parade of Aussie actors in the USA like the Hemsworths and Hugh Jackman are defined by their pleasantness as much as for their masculinity. In her new novel ‘Confessions of a wild child’ there is a cameo by an Aussie called ‘Jack’ that becomes one of the conquests of protagonist Lucky.

Jackie is eager to learn about Tasmania and about Errol Flynn, when I tell her that Tasmania is his birthplace, and she is definitely up for a visit when she returns to Australia . With her prolific writing ability, that could be in the not so distant future, and Jackie is already talking about sequels to her latest publishing sensation ‘Confessions of a wild child’ which charts the hitherto undiscovered history of one of her most famous heroines Lucky Santangelo. The book is a bridge between young adult fiction and adult fiction, in an area or genre, appropriately dubbed, ‘new adult fiction’.

Writing the teenage dialogue of Lucky was not hard for Jackie, being able to base it on her own reflections and the additional help of her God daughters as the novel navigates the rocky sailing of Lucky’s teenage years.

The books message is to believe in achieving your dreams and succeed against the odds! An inspirational message lived out by Jackie herself. Like Lucky, Jackie has made her own success and become a best selling novelist. Lucky, you will find has her own struggles to overcome parental control, to forge ahead with, and totally believe in her own dreams and her ability to reach them to be like her name suggests. It’s a positive message.

Jackie has given us in this novel the genesis of her character, a strong girl that is in control of her life and knows when to step back from dubious situations. It is from this that we get Lucky’s definition of ‘almost’. A definition that may now enter our vernacular! If you want to know more pick up a copy of the book.

‘Confessions of a wild child’ is out now published by Simon & Schuster.